


The Width of a Supernova

by AliceInCandyland



Series: HP Crossovers [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Harry Potter, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Crack Treated Seriously, Everyone Needs A Hug, Female Harry Potter, Good Loki (Marvel), Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Immortal Harry Potter, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Master of Death Harry Potter, Odin's A+ Parenting (Marvel), Parent Tony Stark, Powerful Harry, Thor is Not Stupid (Marvel), What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29691714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceInCandyland/pseuds/AliceInCandyland
Summary: The title's taken from the song 'Oblivion' by Labrinth and Sia
Relationships: Loki (Marvel) & Harry Potter
Series: HP Crossovers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2181822
Comments: 10
Kudos: 156





	1. don't wanna live like this / need something to knock me out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title's taken from the song 'Oblivion' by Labrinth and Sia

_“So when the time comes… the girl must die?”_

There was a question, one she knew pertained to her, but Hazel could only hear it as a sort of echo as she floated between nowhere and nothing, lost to everything she’d ever known.

_“Yes. She must die.”_

And there was the answer.

The one line that had determined her fate.

 _“Quicker than falling asleep,”_ Sirius had reassured her, and yet the second time- the time she lived through being found to not age and not really die… well, it hurt to die then. 

They made it hurt as if that would give them more scientific information- as if she was something that would be explained if they could just shatter her down to her very base components. 

_“The girl who lived, come to die.”_

She was.

In the end- after everything she and Hermione had been so excited to learn about magic and religion was buried along with the bodies of the wizards that had been swiftly executed- the next time she found herself in the white in-between she could never seem to go past, she just laid down on the grey bench in a train station that would never again have a train. 

Waiting.

Hazel had forgotten many things, one being what she was waiting for and even as the low moans and sobs of people she’d long realized were crossing the veil reached her ears, she waited.

Waited for a day when perhaps she would find it in herself to try to feel something other than the cold ball of ice that sat in her chest.

Unmoving.

Unfeeling.

Lost.

“It’s done.”

The voice reaching her ears was much like the others that constantly pleaded and she ignored it like the others at first before slowly it caught her attention as it was louder, stronger. 

As if it wasn’t dying. 

“I completed my goal and used the stones to help the universe- I made it so we… so that there will no longer be suffering or unbalance. I- I created the perfect balance. For _you_.”

Hazel, for the first time in however many light-years- however many births and deaths of whole planets- opened her eyes slowly. The grey platform of King’s Cross was still the same as the first day she’d entered this bleak middle ground, trying to be a hero. And slowly, unable to tell if she should ache, she sat up on the bench with her voice barely a murmur. “Tell me… what does balance mean to you?”

_‘Balance’ for Grindelwald meant making the muggles inferior._

_‘Balance’ for Dumbledore had been sending a seventeen-year-old to die in trade for killing a man he was too afraid to kill himself._

_‘Balance’ for the muggles took her family and friends from her- her godson and niece and nephew all too young when they were killed in cold blood and she was left in the aftermath._

_She_ ** _hated_ ** _‘balance’._

“Half of all the universe. This way each race will be able to flourish again on their own planets, no species will be lost due to overcrowding- everyone will be able to live in peace again.”

Hazel focused a bit more, blinking slowly through the haze she had seemed fit to slip into, hearing the voices seem to get louder- _and there were too many and they were crying out all for being taken from their time too early-_

_-everything was wrong-_

_-it was all wrong-_

Hazel pressed her hands over her ears, curling into a ball as the voices rose like a crescendo of a horrible screeching orchestra… before everything was still.

More silence that she had heard in eons.

Her whisper was soft, horrified. “What… have you done?”

“It was for the greater good.”

Then, as much as she tried to ask why- why did she feel as if her heart of ice had just split in two, the voice wouldn’t answer. 

Or couldn’t. 

“Tony.” Another voice spoke, this one softer and more regretful. “There was no other way.”

Her teeth clenched at that one, feeling a wave of anger sweep through her even though she didn't even know what had been done.

_Of course, there was another way! What had they done- there was_ _always_ _another way! When would people stop assuming that life was just written out already like some stupid foretelling from some half-drunk crackpot in-_

“Mr. Stark?” 

The voice of a boy, reminding her so much of her Teddy that she had trouble breathing for a moment (if she was breathing at all) cut through the air around her as if she was there and she clenched her eyes as she felt a wave of emotion rise through her. 

“I don’t feel so good. I don’t know what’s- I don’t know-”

_No, please..._

“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go, sir,” the boy’s voice cracked, “ _please_ I don’t wanna go- I don’t wanna go…”

Hazel could almost smell the slightly acidic air the boy was breathing in, his sobs her own as he gasped softly, hearing the words that fell from his lips as if they were her own.

“I’m sorry.”

And before she could even think about where- or who- or why- she stood and the world bled into color around her. 

Kings Cross station was the same as she remembered, only even though she was naked as the day she was born, no one seemed to notice as they were too busy freaking out.

Partially because people around her seemed to be… turning to dust.

Reaching out with her magic, she frowned when she felt no spell she could identify on the dying humans, watching as the few left huddled down with wide unblinking eyes. The eyes of someone in shock.

She moved through the streets that almost seemed to be burning, eyes locking on an empty clothing shop and moving silently to dress in simple jeans and a t-shirt, a dark black cloak falling around her shoulders as she moved from the shop to look out at the streets. 

_Well… this was new._

Hazel had seen the aftermath of a war where society had to re-establish itself, lived through the way a whole population of people were killed off for their magic… but this was something more.

Walking through the streets of London and snagging a cup of tea that was still warm from a table on the outside of an empty cafe, she was about to take a sip when she noticed there was ash floating in it.

Setting down the cup gently, she put her hands in her pockets and looked around at the cars that were crashed, a few buildings burning, and absolutely not a face to be seen on the streets.

“What happened here?”

The answer came to her in a silent whisper, multiple voices speaking as one: _“A mad titan took his seeming inability to die in combat as a sort of twisted love confession from Death, setting out to court her with what he claimed could be ‘balance’.”_

Her eyes drifted down to the tea, ash floating on the top and her voice was a whisper. “Titan?”

_“An alien of a long lost powerful race. He is the last of his kind.”_

Hazel nodded, understanding that and yet not fully comprehending what had led to this utter misery. “Will they be alright?”

_"Who?"_

“The people that live in this- this universe.” She fumbled over a way to describe where she was, as there was no lingering magic in the air that came with the presence of mages- except her own. “Will they be… balanced, as the voice said?” 

_“No. The universe was split down the middle, but that means everything was taken as one and divided, not every individual planet. If you look up…”_

She did, seeing suddenly the night sky as she had been moved to stand in a field where it was night, but… the stars were all wrong. She had studied the stars and it was almost like there were _gaps_ , whole constellations missing from the sky. “How-... how horrible.”

 _“Indeed.”_ The conglomeration of voices was silent for a long moment, before speaking to her, as she just stared at where the night sky was so patchy and not _right_ now. _“So… what will you choose to do?”_

Hazel didn’t answer, not liking the idea of getting involved but also feeling an acute loss in her chest at seeing the sky this way.

_“Are you going to interfere? Or will you go back to your bench in your palace of lost things and let this pass as you have so many other things?”_

A long exhale of air was pushed from her lungs, moving a hand to run through the long reddish hair she'd gotten from her mom. “I… I guess I have to do something, don’t I?” With a sigh, as she closed her eyes to feel the wind ripple through her hair, she made up her mind. “But how am I supposed to fix this?”

_We will happily provide you with a way before the mad titan destroys us. It is the least we could do._

Slowly, as if turning back a clock, she saw the sun rising from the wrong direction and setting where it was supposed to rise, its path getting faster until it was a blur and she focused instead on the way she could feel the veil being passed through- only backward.

After a time she could not identify, a single voice that was missing its others at the moment spoke to her in a whisper. 

_I hope that you will change the right things, Lady Death._

Hazel had stood in that field for a long moment, thinking over what the voice had called her with half a mind to scoff and just put it off as ridiculousness, but she didn't. She instead filed it away in her brain for later, turning away from the field and started to walk in the other direction. Though when a man gaped at her as he passed her on a bike, she realized that not only was she in a public park but that her clothes had fallen apart to nothing under whatever time ritual she’d been through.

Rolling her shoulders and feeling her cloak settle around her, she pulled the hood up and let herself slip past the gaze of all those around her unnoticed.

When the presence of magic came from behind her, she immediately spun around and stared at where three monk-looking men all stepped out of a glowing portal, looking around with narrowed eyes. 

Reaching out with her own magic and bushing against them, she noticed that not only they were wearing magical amulets that helped them go unnoticed, but that they were not truly mages after all. They had no core to draw from, though their use and manipulation of energy and the natural ritual of their breathing to channel the magic of the earth was quite fascinating.

Hazel didn't show herself.

Instead, she just watched the half-mages try to scout around the field, muttering about magical energy and epicenters, before drifting away again.

Conjuring American paper money- _as that was where she found herself to be-_ she then moved like a shadow through a department store, snagging clothes to wear before enchanting a backpack to be limitless and grabbing about a week's worth of clothes that fit her.

She set a stack of cash down on a cash register before wandering out, unaware how much she'd spent, as she had little care about that at the moment.

Finding a small cafe at the base of a towering sleek glass building that only had the word 'Stark' on the side, she figured out that if she stayed there during the day and then walked across the plaza to sit in the small diner during the night, she'll be left alone without anyone wondering why she never slept.

_(It had been so long since she had truly slept- since she had let her mind stop working and now it just felt… wrong. As if it was too vulnerable and she couldn’t even think of it without getting restless.)_

Eventually, after handing the nice teenager cashier at the cafe money far past the worth of her tea and bagel, she got a lesson in American money during his break. And in America in general.

When the young boy with the name tag that read 'Jackson' asked how old she was, Hazel just tilted her head slightly. "How old do I look?"

"Thirteen? Maybe?"

She just smiled, telling him she was fourteen, and then wondered what her body slipping back to the last real memory she could remember without feeling numb said about the state of her mind.

Hazel watched the tv with idle fascination, tilting her head when the scrolling script that was lagging behind whatever the lady on the muted screen was saying read something about an 'iron man'.

Sliding from her booth and padding over to the counter, she caught the eyes of the man she knows as the owner and pointed at the tv. "What is an 'iron man'?"

"Hah!" The older Arminian man barked out a sharp laugh, waving at her. "Good joke."

Her eyebrows furrow as she moved her half-eaten sandwich and cup of tea to the bar, backpack slung over her shoulder. She fixed the man with a small frown as she sat down. "It was not funny. I don’t understand. Is the man an alchemist?"

She had met a few who knew such ancient battle techniques as transfiguring their own skin into metal or their breath to be fire, hiding in secret during the magic purges, and she regretted not being able to learn their secrets before they were lost.

"You- you really do not know?" The old man leaned on the other side of the counter when she gave him a half-hearted nod. "Then you have been living under a rock."

Jackson chuckled from the other side of the room, the old man moving to take the younger's place as he griped about not remembering the whole story.

So, of course, Jackson was delighted to fill her in.

In the end, Tony Stark's story sounded a bit like her own.

_Parents murdered- raised by a manipulative narcissist- acting out but eventually falling into his role- captured and suspected to be tortured- being portrayed as the hero while suffering the guilt of a survivor._

And then some man in a suit getting a coffee scoffed, hearing Jackson speak so excitedly of the man, his face a scowl as he looked at her. "Stark may look great but you have to remember that he didn't earn the title of Merchant of Death by doing nothing."

The boy that had been so enthusiastic a second ago dimmed and she found that she didn't like that.

_(Which was unrelated to the sort of echo of amusement her magic had given when the title reached her ears, firmly ignoring the reaction.)_

"And why is that so bad?"

"He makes weapons of war, kid. He's behind every innocent dead."

"No, he isn't." There is a sureness to her tone that rang clear, as she could hear the whispers of the dead rise up in outrage of their murders being blamed on a scapegoat. "He is an innovator and though making weapons might not have been the best choice, he created what he could, and then they left his hands. What others did with his creations is not on him. Why blame the Merchant when you can blame Death instead? Or perhaps man as a race would be a better choice, as Death is really just the gatekeeper for your extended vacation over to the afterlife."

The man scoffs as if her words were ridiculous. "Save me the new-age witchy nonsense- you have no idea what you're talking about."

Hazel only rolled her eyes and flicked a small charm at the man's coffee that would give him diarrhea, more interested in what he had said about 'new age witchcraft'- which Jackson happily indulged by directing her to multiple websites on the subject (after showing her in detail how to use his fancy thin ‘smart’ phone that she kept feeling like she would break).

She was disappointed to find that even though they had the basic idea, there were no actual magical ingredients to their potions.

Letting out a long sigh, she noticed the strange look Jackson gave her and shook her head, holding out his phone. “I thought perhaps I was wrong about there being no mages in this world if there was the title of ‘witch’ being used, but my hope was unfounded. There is obviously no magic in those-… those videos you showed me, only false hope.”

_“There are no magic-users like you anymore, no, though there are a few like before you ascended...”_

Hearing the singular voice that had spoken to her after the world had gone back in (what she could only assume was) time, she turned out Jackson’s rant about other types of ‘medicinal healing’ that could be forms of magic and instead tried to project her thoughts back to the voice in her head. _“And who is this that I speak to? Do you have a name to give me so I may remember who knows so much about me?”_

_“It is my job to remember that which has been. The humans that currently possess me, tend to call me ‘Agamotto’.”_

_“Nice to meet you then, Agamotto.”_

When the voice did not answer back again she focused back on where Jackson was talking about something relating to ‘aliens’. 

Hazel sighed and put her cheek in her small hand, looking at him in amusement. “Just because there may be life from other planets does not make them magic. Magic is an energy that must be integrated into one’s soul during birth, creating a second soul called a ‘core’ that the user can then use to cast spells from their own inherent system. Some can harness the inherent magic in the very nature of everything that is created by non-mankind means, but even then without a core they are not truly mages, instead being of a subcategory called ‘magicians’ who can use basic magics without having been born into it.”

Jackson stared at her. “This- are you writing a book about this?” He gestured to the journal she’d gone to get halfway through her first week and in which she was writing everything she could remember about her life (so she didn’t forget). “That’s super cool- I’d love to read it!”

She repressed a sigh. “It’s not much use anymore. There aren’t any actual mages left.”

“Is it sort of like a post-apocalyptic fantasy world? That’s so cool!”

And when she just smiled and decided to go along with it, the boy suggested she read one of the books he had in his bag- as he’d read it multiple times before- and she left a bit before they closed with a new book.

Which she threw across the booth of the diner halfway through the third chapter, frustrated with the author’s descriptions of magic.

_She just wanted to feel some else’s magic in the air around her, if just for a moment, so she could pretend like she was back in Ron and Hermione’s home sitting on their couch drinking tea, not in a world she was the only of her kind._

There was a slight tingle, a ripple of very faint magic rolling across her senses as if it was very far away. 

_“If that’s what you want...”_

Her eyebrows furrowed, looking down at her hot chocolate. “Who… Are you like Agamotto?”

_“I am the guardian of space. The humans call me ‘Tesseract’.”_

Her head tilted slightly at the odd name, but she just jotted it down in her notebook anyway, and like the other, the voice didn’t speak up again- as if they just were there to answer what she asked.

But as she didn’t have any other questions, the silence returned.

Jackson pulled up another picture on his phone, this one a bit less blurry, of what looked like a short green troll. “Isn’t that cool?! And he is- well, was- super brilliant too! I mean I’m learning about his theories of particle physics in class and can barely understand them but he’s super smart!”

“Trolls have little memory or intelligence, so I doubt that this creature is that… though the thick skin and rage seems to fit.” She tilted her head. “Perhaps he is mutated, as you said, though this rare form of energy sounds a lot like magic...”

The boy said something, but she was too distracted to hear it, as the tickling pulse of magic she had felt the other night came though stronger and washed over her like a wave of cool air. 

“Hey, you okay?” A hand tapped her shoulder lightly, the teenager’s eyes concerned.

“I-... Yes, I’m alright.”

Setting down the phone, as if the discussion of ‘superpowers’ had bothered her, he instead smiled at her. “So you must be from England, with the accent and everything? Where in England?”

“I was born in England, though I mostly grew up in Scotland, as I went to a- er- sort of boarding school until, well, recently I guess.”

The wave of magic was soon forgotten as she tried to explain how she got to America and why she never had adults around.

_The curse of being a child._


	2. but you're acting like you're somebody else / like you're losing yourself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is lyrics from 'Hazel' by Carlie Hanson

That night, sitting in the diner, a third of those cold waves of magic washed over her and this time she sat up a little straighter.

Hazel focused on where the source had come from, finding that many had crossed the veil because of it. And there was one, a woman’s internal monologue of curses, that was teetering on the edge.

Without even really thinking about it, she stood calmly from her seat and walked to the restroom of the diner, apparating as soon as the door shut behind her.

The landing was a bit rough and she winced as she was jolted into sitting in some sort of off-road vehicle that was speeding through what looked to be a tunnel that was collapsing behind them. 

She merely spoke what she knew. “You aren’t going to make it.”

A dark-haired woman jolted, peering at her in between trying to drive in a way that avoided the tunnel crashing down around their ears. “What- who-”

“It’s not the time for names, it’s the time to decide if you wish to live.” Hazel held out her hand, feeling the seconds ticking down as if it were a meter in her head. “I mean, perhaps Luck likes you enough for at the very last second there to be some way you get out of this, but I wouldn’t rest much on that. Luck and Fate are fickle on a good day.”

“I- who are you?!”

She just looked at the woman, holding out her hand further.

The seconds reached the point where she almost thought it wouldn’t be enough- but then a warm hand folded into hers and she instantly apparated them away to where it was safe from the magic’s range. 

Retching, the woman fell to a knee and took a moment to steady her breathing, not letting go of her hand. “How… We- you-”

“I’m going to need my hand back to leave, you know.” Her voice was just slightly tinged with humor, but when the woman kept coughing she sent a soothing wave of her magic through their connected hands and felt a bit bad for wanting to go back to her hot chocolate. She relented slightly. “But I guess you did almost just die…”

There were bright lights and the screech of tires as a truck pulled to a stop next to where they were, a man jumping out and gaping at them. “Hill? What-”

“You know her? Excellent.” Hazel then pulled her hand away a little more forcefully, brushing some of the debris and dirt from the collapsing tunnel off her clothes. “Then my job here is fulfilled.”

“Wait but how did you get me out? And appearing like that-”

Hazel chuckled. “It’s just this.” Spinning on her heel, she found herself standing in the center of the pit the magical explosion had created, feeling small signatures of life from under the rubble and slowly she moved the rubble to float above her. A few faces peered at her in wonder when the last piece was lifted and she smiled at the people. “Perhaps you would like to move?”

Many of the adults scrambled from their pits onto where she was standing, but one of the women gave a shuddering breath with tears running down her face. “My- my foot- it’s pinned.”

Waving her hand, she levitated more of the rubble and then let her magic reach out so the woman herself was lifted gently to be set down on the ground next to her. Releasing the rubble so it was left to fall with a shuttering crash, she kneeled next to the woman with the bent ankle. “Would you like me to fix that for you?”

There was something pressed to the back of her head and she stilled, one of the men speaking up gruffly. “Who are you? What’s with the- the floating shit and how’d you do that? Appear out of nowhere?”

“I’m a _mage_.” She turned to look down the barrel of a gun at the man flatly. “‘Floating shit’, as you so eloquently put it, is what I _do_.”

“You’re going to put these on,” a pair of handcuffs were tossed at her, “and then you’re going to explain how in hell you knew about this SHIELD base or I’m going to shoot you without hesitation.”

Hazel didn’t like threats. 

Especially not when they involved muggle guns.

Reaching out with her magic, she melted the gun in his hand, standing slowly and watching in apathy as the man cried out- the metal melting into the man’s skin. “No, I don’t think I will.”

Feeling the air tremble as another gun was fired, she turned on her heel and was standing back in the diner’s restroom before the bullet could hit her. 

Scowling at her dirt-streaked face in the mirror, she leaned over to wash herself off before walking out and sitting back down to her cup of hot chocolate.

_Funny how humans were when presented with the ‘impossible’._

Hazel leaned over the bar, smiling at where Jackson was hiding while reading something, as the boy wasn’t supposed to be seen ignoring his job even though the cafe was in its lull period. “What’s that?”

Looking up at her, the boy glanced to where the old Arminian man she knew as Aram was sitting on a stool, and when the man waved his hand with a few intelligible grumbles the boy bounded around the bar to sit down next to her. He showed off what looked like a colorful magazine. “It’s one of those old Captain America comics. I got it from my grandpa when he was getting rid of stuff!”

She looked closer, finding that it was drawn in a slightly cartoonish style, except more realistic. “What’s it about?”

“You-” Jackson shook his head slightly with a smile. “You’re unbelievable.”

Tilting her head with just a hidden smile, she let him regale her with the whole story of ‘Captain America’, the WW2 hero that went around punching Nazis.

When the boy was done, apparently looking to her with approval, she just shrugged. “Sounds fun. I remember learning about the Alliance in history class and trying to get my best friend to calm down when she wanted to go set something on fire.” 

_Hermione hadn’t been very happy that Grindelwald’s supporters, though uncaring of magical blood as long as they didn’t associate with muggles, didn’t accept those that were of different skin colors._

Hazel waved off the boy’s furrowed eyebrows. “So what happens to ‘Mr. America’ in this story?”

“He’s a real person you know? There’s actual proof! Records and other documentation of his fights during World War two!” When she raised an eyebrow, Jackson nodded happily and then spent the rest of his break pulling up old articles and videos on his phone to prove such to her.

When he left the comic with her as he went back to working as the mid-day rush started up again, she was careful in reading through the pages, wondering how many strange individuals this universe held and how not a single of them possessed the barest amount of magic.

Shaking her head and setting aside the magazine, she felt a man teetering on the edge of the veil, and yet- he had magic lingering on him.

There was a whisper in her brain of remorse and she stood from the stool before she could think about it, latching onto the man’s spirit and pulling him away from the veil before she even knew what she was doing. Stalking out of the cafe she let her cloak fall over her and apparated to the man’s side, kneeling when she found he was the one that had been in the truck when she’d helped the other woman. Her voice was the barest hiss. “Tell me. Who did this- where did this magic come from? Tell me and I will spare you.”

“Who- who are you?” The man’s voice was soft, a line of blood dribbling from the corner of his lips.

“Tell me!” Reaching out, she shook him slightly, the need to find whatever was giving off the energy of another mage not letting her notice her irrationality until the man hissed in pain at her treatment. She pulled away quickly. “Sorry. I’m sorry, that was rude of me…”

The man looked at her sadly. “‘s okay.”

“I’ll find them myself… just close your eyes. This won’t hurt a bit.” She reached out to press her hand to his wound, ignoring the sound of footsteps as she let her magic help knit his wound back together as she slowly pulled him away further and further from the veil. 

The man's eyes closed and she finished just as a group of muggles rounded the corner of wherever they were, hearing the sound of guns being moved to point at her. "Step away from him and identify yourself!"

Hazel chuckled humorlessly. "You people have such a thing for names, don't you… But why give one when we both know I don't plan to stay?" Letting her cloak veil her, she then used their confusion to apparate back to the alley next to the cafe.

Strolling back in, she smiled thinly at Jackson's questioning glance. "Had to run an errand really quick." 

"It's okay. I saved your seat since you left your stuff.” The boy grinned and moved to put her half-full teacup and slightly nibbled on bagel back on the counter. “Thought you might come back.”

Her smile was appreciative, the small warm gesture soothing the irritation in her chest.

Hazel felt it before it happened, as usual.

That cold brush of magic, accompanied by the voice of Tesseract. _“I think that you might find it wise to leave this area, my Lady.”_

 _“Why?”_ Sliding from her chair and slowly moving to the doors of the cafe, trying to best find the source of whatever chilly magic was pulsing through the air in ripples, stepping outside and looking up with a soft gasp. The sky was lit with blue, rippling and spreading outward to show the wide and endless blackness of space _“What... is that?”_

 _“That,”_ Tesseract’s voice was soft and slightly mournful, _“is what the mage I let use me as a doorway to this planet did. He is planning to bring an army of bloodthirsty warriors to Earth so he can rule.”_

She hummed lightly, voice soft. “Remind me not to ask you for things when my emotions are at play.”

 _“The mage is also using another of us, one that has yet to be awakened, to control the minds of those humans that he wants on his side.”_ Agamotto’s voice was a bare whisper. _“... what is your plan, Lady of Death?”_

Turning on her heel, she moved back to the bar without answering, looking at Jackson and Aram. “I recommend that you leave here.” Downing the rest of her tea, she flicked her hand so that her clothes were transfigured into fitting duling robes, her cloak settling around her shoulders like a long black cape. “I would regret both your deaths, as I actually like this place.” 

Jackson choked slightly, scrambling back from her with wide eyes and the cafe was still as she turned on her heel and strolled back out.

Moving out onto the street she let the Elder Wand and Resurrection Stone appear in her hand, running a hand through her hair to braid it back as the Hallows combined and turned into a long scythe. Hitting a beam of energy back at an alien without a thought, she sighed as she watched the destruction. “And here I thought I got over my saving-people-thing.” Spinning around and slashing at the air, she felt a wave of pure magic ripple out from her scythe, watching half-heartedly as more than a few of the flying ships were sliced directly down the middle. “I guess not, though.”

Pursing her lips as people ran past her on the streets though they gave her a wide berth, she danced down the middle of the street sending back their blasts of energy and cutting them down with simple swipes of her scythe. 

A ship fell from the air next to her, a creature getting off and snarling at her, to which she just raised an eyebrow. “Ugly.”

Lunging at her, she danced out of its way with a laugh. 

When it tried to claw at her, she pressed the long black blade of her weapon to its chest with a hint of a cruel smirk creeping up her lips. “Die.” 

When it fell to the ground stiffly she danced up the street, seeing a red and gold object jet by with three of the ships on its tail and she hummed as she made a long arc with her blade, watching as they were cut down easily.

“I think… that perhaps these creatures are more like bees than bears, yes?”

_“They are creatures of a hive, yes. There is no individual will to them and they know only bloodlust.”_

With a slight hum as her eyebrows raised in a ‘what do you know’ look that was meant for no one in particular she let her scythe shift into a long white staff with a black gem on the top, firing off dark orbs of pulsing energy into the air that crackled and turned as if to look at her. “Eat the mindless mechanical creatures. Grow. Then eat more.” 

Leaning on her staff as she watched the black orbs sprout long tentacles that wrapped around the creatures, bringing them into the crackling darkness and growing when they did, she turned then to look back at the cafe. 

Jackson was huddled in the doorway, phone out, and pointed at her.

Shaking her head, she started his way. “Merlin, you’re bad at following instructions! Get out of here! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Then when he didn’t move, she raised her staff to point at him threateningly. “ _Go_!”

The boy ran then.

“Bloody teenagers.” 

A roar seemed to shake the air.

Looking back up, she raised a single eyebrow at the weird plated space-whale that came from the sky. Her black orbed tentacle creatures that were looking more and more like fat little octopi seemed to sort of pause. 

Hazel just sent them a small smirk. “If you combine, I bet you could swallow that too if you wanted.”

Doing just that, the black mass seemed to combine into a large black octopus of rippling energy, then shooting up to wrap its tentacles around the space-whale, slowly ripping it apart to consume it.

Hazel rolled her eyes. “Good boy.” She moved onto a side street, starting to walk along as she blasted the smaller alien to bits. “When you’re done you’ll be big enough to split a bit of yourself off to come keep these annoying flies from getting too close to me.”

There was no response, but after a moment a large floating octopus moved to float over her, casting a shadow as it started to snatch up the snarling beasts.

“Thanks, dear.”

Focusing on the buildings around her, she took a deep breath and let her magic flow into letting everything be returned to its state of order- dips in the street paving themselves, the holes in buildings fixing themselves, cars moving to where they were, fires going out.

Walking as she held the spell, letting the magic taken from the creatures being eaten by the physical manifestation of her magic, she stopped at the end of the street as she felt another of the whale-beasts coming directly for her with the intent to undo her hard work.

She pointed her staff at it with narrowed eyes. “No. _Die_.”

Watching it start to bank and fall towards the ground, the inky black octopus moved to swallow it whole before it could hit anything, growing the side of one of the large buildings and looking at her as if for approval.

“Very good. Split and go join your sibling.” 

The black inky mass seemed to split in two, forming two octopi, one floating up to help the massive black octopus lazily grabbing the metal creatures out of the sky, its shadow covering most of the city. 

Hazel tilted her head, knowing that maybe something that big would stand out, raising her staff to recall half of the magic from it. Feeling it like a rush of warmth down her spine, the Resurrection Stone in her staff glowing as if there was a small galaxy trapped inside it, she hummed and tilted her head.

“What if I… teleported all the humans from this area?”

Agamotto seemed to laugh silently, voice amused. _“Then you would move the superheroes from the area too.”_

Not about to even try to understand what that meant on a deeper level than ‘no that won’t work’, she sighed softly, watching her octopi grab the creatures and consume them happily. “How about… Teleporting all humans that are _not fighting_ to a safe distance?”

 _“I can do that. You worry about the creatures.”_ Tesseract’s cold magic washed over her and she whistled lowly as the street was suddenly empty of running muggles. 

“Thank you.”

Humming as she turned the street, she saw a massive whale moving towards a man, the man rippling with the faintest aura of magic before he transformed into a massive hulking green monster. 

She blinked a few times, watching as the beast stopped the whale in its tracks.

There was an explosion, the group of ‘superheroes’ being dramatic, and lots of screaming from the creatures climbing the buildings.

Hazel turned around and started to walk the other way, shaking her head. “Looks like they can fend for themselves.” Pretending like she wasn’t avoiding that mess, she looked up at her massive black blob octopus. “Why don’t you and your sibling split up again and then go make sure there’s enough of a border around the area of destruction.”

The black magic rippled as it split into three, going separate directions as she glanced to the top of Stark Tower where Tesseract’s magic was coming from. Twisting on her heel, she apparated up to the roof, where she found a man with bright blue eyes gaping at her. 

“What- who-”

“Hello.”

The voice was much clearer, but it seemed to emanate from her right where a blue cube sat in the device making the portal. _“Well met, Lady Death.”_

She had to blink a few times.

_She didn’t expect that._

“A cube. The first magical thing I find to talk to and it’s a bloody cube. Good job Hazel, your lonely meter has reached its peak.” With a sigh, she poked the magical shield around the machine with her staff, raising an eyebrow when it went right through. “Should I just… grab you?”

_“If you would be so kind.”_

Agamotto chimed in. _“But not yet.”_

With a glance at the man to the side that suddenly lunged at her, she parried him with her staff and then whacked him so he fell unconscious, looking at the cube with a raised eyebrow. “If not now, when?”

_“When I say.”_

Rolling her eyes and then leaning back against the side of the building, she released the magic from her staff, this black blob forming into a jellyfish. 

Hazel tilted her head. “I must like sea creatures today.” She waved her hand at it. “Go eat things, since I seem not to need you. Make me proud.” It bounced away as if happy and she huffed a small laugh. “And don’t get too big!”

With the displacement of gravel, a woman with bright red hair rolled past her.

Hazel raised an eyebrow, watching as the woman got up and then froze at the sight of her. “Hello. Are you here to try to get Tesseract out of there too?” She tilted her head as she pointed at the cube. “Because he doesn’t want to come out until something important happens.”

 _“And that has not yet happened.”_ Agamotto sounded like a stern grandmother chiding her, but it just made her smile slightly.

Well, until the woman raised her fists as if planning to fight her, eyebrows pulled down as she slowly moved forward with eyes studying the staff in her hand. “Are you another Asgardian? With Loki?”

“Who’s Loki? And As- what are those?”

Tesseract pulsed brightly as if in laughter, drawing the woman’s eyes for just a moment. _“Asgardians are a race that humanity once believed to be the Norse gods. Loki is a mage like you. The one I let through.”_

She frowned slightly. “Loki is the one who did all this? Then no, I’m with him, nor am I Asgar-Asgardian.” She fumbled over the word slightly, then offering the woman a friendly smile. “Though I am a mage like him and I’d love to see his style of magic.”

Glancing at the unconscious man, the woman’s lips pulled down just slightly. “Are you sure you don’t know Loki?”

“That man tried to attack me.” When the woman shot her a disbelieving look, she sighed slightly. “Really. Here, you want to hold my staff for a moment if it’ll calm you down? I won’t need it when it comes time to close the portal…”

“Toss it my way.”

Doing as told, she knew it was just waiting to be summoned back, but let that fact go when the woman relaxed. Then turning around to look out across the city, she watched it all go to chaos. “Is it about time? I would say the city has been destroyed enough, don’t you?”

_“Be patient.”_

Seeming to know that she wasn’t being spoken to, the woman stepped slowly to her side, looking out across where her small black creatures of magic were clustered around the streets consuming the aliens. “Are those things… yours?”

Hazel nodded. “They’re physical manifestations of my magic I created to consume the aliens and convert their raw materials into energy.” She grinned at the woman cheekily. “Or you could just say that they’re sea creatures and their favorite shelled snacks are tiny krill and big whale-looking shrimp.”

“So you… do magic. And you call yourself a mage.” The dark brown eyes studied her. “Why haven’t I heard of you? Or SHIELD?”

She snorted lightly. “Figures you’d be with them. The only people I seem to save from dying come from there. You lot have a knack for pointing guns at me, yeah?” Sending a small frown at the woman, she then looked back to the city line. “Well, perhaps when all this is over you could tell them to stop that. I hate guns.”

There was a pause.

“Thank you.” The woman’s voice was soft, nodding to where they could see three of her magic blobs picking off the aliens trying to attack where a man was shooting arrows off a building. “For helping us.”

“Sure.” Then slowly, telegraphing her moves, she reached out to touch her staff and smiled when the man jolted as she’d duplicated his arrows to fill his quiver up again. He looked over with wide eyes and she waved with a giggle, giving him a thumbs up. “You two seem nice. You have good energy around you, though I can feel that you’re equally as dangerous when you want to be.”

The woman looked over, locking eyes with her, a smile starting to creep over her lips when something about her seemed to freeze. Her eyes got a bit glazed as if listening to something.

 _“The man of Iron, Tony Stark, is going to make a sacrifice that will change everything.”_ Agamotto’s voice was soft. _“He will go into the portal and when I tell you, close it. Not a second before or after.”_

“If you say so…” Moving to the edge of the blue barrier, she poked the blue energy shield to find it rippled like water, sticking her hand in and getting ready. “On your call then.”

A second later there was a whoosh as a red and gold suit of armor raced past the top of the building towards the portal with a missile on his back, flying right in.

Her hand crept closer.

“The aliens! They’re falling!” The woman’s voice spoke up a second later, audible with relief but Hazel kept her eyes on Tesseract, hand twitching until it was just a centimeter away... 

_“Now, my Lady.”_

Wrapping her hand around the cube, she yanked, stumbling backward as the energy barrier fell. Looking at the cube in her hand, she raised her eyebrows. “What now?”

_“Now leave. Or the woman will take Tesseract.”_

Summoning her staff to hand, she smiled apologetically. “Sorry.” She twisted on her heel, finding herself on a street with a nearby black octopus consuming the leftover alien parts.

_“I think I will stay with you if you don’t mind?”_

She shrugged, watching curiously as the cube seemed to crack into a small blue stone that floated in the air. Reaching out to grab it, she then moved to pick up a small piece of metal that twisted in her hand to become a bracelet chain with a small mesh locket on the end. “Does this work for you?”

Tesseract floated down to sit in the heart of the locket, blue light dimming slightly until it just looked like an opal instead. _“Indeed.”_

Clipping the chain around her wrist, she then let her magic turn her clothes back to her jeans and t-shirt, cloak disappearing, as she wasn’t fighting anymore. “Wonderful. Now if my cute little magical blobs will help me clean up…” 

Feeling the silent recognition of a command, the black shapes start to move across the sky as they sought out the areas that were destroyed, reaching out with their tentacles and pushing the magic gathered back into fixing things as she started to do the same with her staff.


End file.
